This is what I liked about the open blogosphere of 2000 to 2008. Whereas something like Twitter is optimized for the fast-take and the brutal one-liner, blogs allowed actual conversations. You could write something serious, develop the idea, and maybe some other people would engage with it, also at a serious level. But then the walled-gardens began to gain ground (Facebook, Twitter, and then later Instagram) and the era of the blogs came to an end. (Yes, they still exist, but they most exist as standalone essays, not engaged in conversation with other blogs.)
This is a good analysis but here’s the thing about online conversation: it is more often than not, useless. I’ve read millions of comments on blogs and they rarely added anything.
They follow a pattern through a spectrum. On one side you have the friend, who’s going to agree with you no matter what. And on the other side, you have an anonymous troll whose entire goal is to disagree with you.
This is a waste of anyone’s time and today with bots and AI? Yeah.
The interesting thing to me is that we keep saying that blogs and online reading MUST evolve into a conversation. The so-called engagement. I don’t think it has to at all.
Reading is about you. It’s about making sense of what you read, connecting to who you are and what you’re looking for. It is mostly a personal adventure. Later on, you will have a conversation with someone and naturally if something that you read changed your mind, you will talk about it. Maybe even mention the author or share the link.
More importantly, knowledge needs to simmer through. It takes time.
The obsession with engagement and becoming a “leader” a “voice” or an “influencer” is just fast food ego trip. It’s kind of weird.
Standalone essays are the bomb. Non-sponsored (aka 100% integrity), independent and smart opinions? All day, everyday.